 |
January 8, 2006
Judge rules
against newspaper in potentially precedent-setting copyright infringement
case
©Katharine
Farmer
Christopher R. Harris |
SAN JOSE, Calif.,
January 2, 2006 --- Northern District of California Judge Charles
Breyer denied a motion for summary judgment by the (San Jose)
Mercury News in round two of a potentially precedent-setting
copyright infringement case brought against the newspaper by photographer
(and TAA member) Christopher R. Harris, who claims the newspaper
published a photograph of his alongside a book review without his
consent.
In its motion,
the newspaper introduced evidence that its practice of accompanying
book reviews with copyrighted photographs taken from the inside
of the book being reviewed was a common practice at other metropolitan
newspapers throughout the country, and that the practice was legal
under the "fair use" defense.
Judge Breyer
ruled that no one could successfully claim "fair use" if the claim
contained copying copyrighted photographs. The exclusive rights
to those copyrighted photographs resides with the copyright holder,
he said, which is in most cases the photographer.
Harris, a
professor in the College of Mass Communication at Middle Tennessee
State University, in Murfreesboro, Tennessee filed suit on December
10, 2004 after he discovered that a photo of Southern author Walker
Percy, that he had shot originally while on assignment for Esquire
Magazine, was used in a book review by the Mercury News.
Harris said
that he had never been contacted by the Mercury News for
rights to use the image, and was never paid for any such use.
Additionally, the Mercury News had removed his copyright
notice from his photo credit when they published the "pirated"
photo, thus possibly violating a legal requirement under the Digital
Millenium Copyright Act of the Federal Copyright statutes.
Harris, who
still leases stock photos from his collection of images shot over
a 25-year career, derives part of his income from such leases.
Harris is well known for his long-term work with the New York
Times, TIME, Newsweek and other national
and international publications. He was one of the first photographers
to work with GAMMA/Liaison photo agency, with offices in New York
and Paris. Due to the agency's international scope of representation,
the distribution of his many stories, and assignments by GAMMA/Liaison
led to his work appearing in literally hundreds of publications
worldwide. Confronted with the legal dilemma of someone "pirating"
his work, Harris hired the Silicon Valley law firm Tech &
Trial Law Group. Robert Spanner and Susan Kalra, known experts
in intellectual property, were his attorneys in this suit.
According
to Spanner, lead counsel for the plaintiff, "a photographer's
right to limit distribution and reproduction of his or her copyrighted
photographs is a fundamental tenet of copyright law, and the notion
that a newspaper can override that right and freely reproduce
and distribute - without a license and for free - photographs
which the photographer had licensed to a book publisher for a
fee, would obviously be a matter of grave concern to the photographers'
profession. Mr. Harris stood up for the rights of his fellow photographers
because he believed it was the right thing to do, and we are gratified
that his efforts have been vindicated." At a hearing on the case
on May 27, 2005, Breyer said that this case could be an important
one regarding author/photographer rights: "....what is at stake
here is the principle of whether a newspaper writer can take a
photograph from a book and publish it without permission of the
copyright holder."
The case has
been scheduled for a trial setting before Judge Breyer on January
20, 2006 at 8:30 a.m.
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New Way
to Teach High School Chemistry
Key Curriculum
Press, which publishes textbooks, software, and other learning
materials for the middle school, high school, and college markets,
teamed up with developers from the University of California at
Berkeley to publish "Living By Chemistry," a hands-on program
for teaching standards-based high school chemistry. This yearlong
chemistry curriculum, which represents Key's expansion into science
teaching materials, was developed with support from the National
Science Foundation and has already been tested in more than 100
classrooms -- and adopted by public school systems in Boston and
San Diego with great success. The authors of "Living By Chemistry"
are Angelica Stacy, who was named a Distinguished Teaching Scholar
in 2005 by the National Science Foundation; Janice A. Coonrod,
a University of California-educated scientist, author, and educator
with more than 10 years of experience in the field of science
education; and Jennifer Claesgens, a curriculum developer and
graduate student researcher, who worked on the curriculum design
and assessment development for the textbook, led teacher workshops,
and taught high school students using the "Living By Chemistry"
curriculum.
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ebrary
Customer Base Increased 37 Percent in 2005
eBook technology
and services company ebrary saw a 37 percent increase in its customer
base in 2005. The company now has more than 900 library customers,
in 100 different countries, serving more than 5.5 million patrons.
Overall usage of ebrary products in 2005 grew by more than 400
percent over the previous year. Some highlights of the past year:
more than 20 new publishing partners (includingOxford Univeristy
Press, Elsevier Publishing, and IBM Redbooks), who were instrumental
in growing ebrary's eBook collection by more than 31 percent for
a total of more than 80,000 authoritative titles; launched several
new products for the library and publishing market, including
two perpetual access eBook product lines and ebrary OnDemand(TM),
a hosted application service that enables libraries and publishers
to securely distribute and archive their own PDF content online;
partnered with international and local distributors and consortia,
which are actively selling and promoting ebrary products; added
several new advisory board members of industry experts from Marist
College, Brigham Young University, and Princeton University. For
the third year in a row, in 2005 ebrary was also named to the
eContent 100 list of "companies that matter most in the digital
content industry."
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TAA Texty,
McGuffey winners among accessible texts
Robert Martinengo,
a TAA member and co-founder of the Center for Accessible Publishing,
an advocacy organization for nonprint readers, recently pointed
out several TAA Texty and McGuffey textbooks that are available
in audio and electronic formats, making them accessible for persons
with disabilities.
They include:
- Labor
Relations: Striking a Balance, 1st edition, by John Budd,
published by McGraw-Hill.
- Elemental
Geosystems, 4th edition, by Robert Christopherson, published
by Pearson Education/ Prentice Hall
- Prentice
Hall Chemistry, 7th edition, by Antony Wilbraham, Michael
Matta, Dennis Staley, and Edward Waterman, published by Pearson
Education/ Prentice Hall
- Microsoft
Office 2003 Introductory Course, 6th edition, by William
R. Pasewark, Sr., Scott Pasewark, William R. Pasewark, Jr.,
Carolyn Pasewark Denny, Jan Pasewark Stogner, and Beth Pasewark
Wadsworth, published by Thomson Course Technology
- Introduction
to Geography: People, Places and Environment, 3rd edition,
byEdward Bergman, and William Renwick, published by Pearson
Education/Prentice Hall
- World
Regions in Global Context: People, Places and Environment,
2nd edition, by Sallie Marston, Paul Knox and Diana Liverman,
published by Pearson Education/Prentice Hall
- Personal
Fitness: Looking Good Feeling Good, 5th edition by Charles
Williams, Manny Harageones, Dewayne Johnson and Charles Smith,
published by Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company
- Asking
About Life, 3rd edition, by Jennie Dusheck and Allan Tobin,
published by Wadsworth & Brooks/Cole
- Discrete
Mathematics with Applications, 3rd edition, by Susanna Epp,
published by Brooks/Cole
- Organizations:
Behavior, Structure, Processes, 10th edition, by John (Jack)
M. Ivancevich, Robert Konopaske, James Donnelly and James L.
Gibson (11th edition won the McGuffey), published by McGraw-Hill/Irwin
- The
Atmosphere: An Introduction to Meteorology, 9th edition,
Fred Lutgens and Ed Tarbuck, published by Pearson Education/
Prentice Hall
- Business
Data Communications, 4th edition (5th edition won the McGuffey),
by William Stallings, published by Prentice Hall
- Essentials
of Business Communication, 6th edition, by Dr. Mary Ellen
Guffey, published by South-Western/Thomson
The second
edition of TAA President Richard T. Hull's Ethical Issues in
the New Reproductive Technologies is also available in digital
format. "There are various downloadable readers that would
render it into an audio book," he said.
Is your book
available in audio or electronic format? Let us know -- please
share the titles of any books you have available in accessible
formats: kmpawlak@centurytel.net
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Writer's
Block: The Value of Incremental Writing
TAA Executive
Director and philosophy author Richard Hull shares his thoughts
on "incremental writing" in an essay for TAA's new essay section,
Writer's Block. Read Hull's "The Value of Incremental Writing"
here.
Let us know
what you think of Hull's essay and/or consider writing your own.
Writer's Block is devoted to the experiences and issues of writing
and writers. Essays will be published on the TAA website and in
a special section in the TAA print newsletter, "The Academic Author."
Send your
essays to TAA Publications Editor Kim Pawlak at kmpawlak@centurytel.net
Not a member? Join TAA now.
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Busy TAA
People: Christopher R. Harris
Christopher
R. Harris, a professor of electronic media communication at Middle
Tennessee State University, started a blog for digital journalists
(photo and print journalists) at http://www.digitalprof.wordpress.com
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TAA Council
Meeting January 16
The TAA Council,
TAA's governing body, will be meeting on January 16, 2006 in St.
Petersburg, Florida at the Holiday Inn Hotel & Suites Beachfront
Resort.
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2006
TAA Convention to be Held at Disney's Grosvenor Resort
The 2006 TAA
Convention will be held at the Grosvenor Resort in the Walt Disney
World Resort in Orlando, Florida, July 7-8. Hotel rates for convention
attendees are $99 per night (which includes a $9 resort fee; parking
included). This elegant hotel is on the trolley line and is within
the Disney Resort. Convention registration is $75 for members
before May 1, $125 after; registration for non-members is $125
before May 1, $175 after. Non-member registration includes a one-year
membership to TAA. The Awards Banquet dinner, held Friday, July
7, is optional, and is an additional $45 per person. To make a
reservation at the Grosvenor Resort, call 1-800-624-4109. Learn
more about the Grosvenor Resort at http://www.grosvenorresort.com
To register for the convention contact Janet Tucker, TAA's Managing
Director, at (727) 563-0020.
*Coming Soon:
Secure Online Form for Registering for TAA Conventions*
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TAA newsletter
archive now online
A PDF archive
of TAA member newsletters, TAA Report and The Academic
Author, dating back to the summer of 1987, is now online in
the TAA Members-Only Member Center. The archive lists a table
of contents for each issue.
Click
here to view the archive in the Members Only section
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New Form
Allows Online Donations to TAA Foundation
TAA has made
it easier than ever to make a donation to the TAA Foundation by
creating a secure online donation form. The form is accessible
through the TAA Foundation page, the TAA Notes page and the online
new member/renewal form. To make an online donation to the TAA
Foundation, click
here. Your donation to the TAA Foundation will be matched
$1 for $1 by a $15,000 matching grant from TAA.
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Renew Your
Membership Online!
TAA has just
launched a new online member form that will allow members to renew
online using a secure server. The form can also be used by new
members. Check it out in the TAA Member Center here.
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